The freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1886-18??, 1887-02-09
Are there just and Sufficient
Reasons for the Existence of
the Prohibition Party
NO. 4. CONCLUSION.

Very nearly akin to the purely
moral phase Of Temperance work
is the non partisan method.
Where the method is what its
name indicates, it is identical
with the moral. In very many
cases the name ia q blind behind
which there turks the most bitter
and persistent partisan attach
ment to one of the old parties and
equally bitter opposition to the
Prohibition party. But without
entering into any controversy with
that class now we claim, and will
endeavor to show, that non parti-
san methods must in the very ma
ture of the case stop short of the
end desired. There is and has al
ways been large field for non
partisan effort, but when that field
has been worked to the utmost the
demand for a party pledged to take
up and finish its work is just as
great as ever. Good citizens ire.
spective of party, are everywhere
interested in lifting up the drunk
ard into a nobler manhood. To-
gether they may pray with and for
him. Socially they may help him
by going one on either side Of him.
Democrat, Republican or Prohibi-
ZIONIST with proper love for hu-
mainly will lend his aid. This is
non partisan work. But the work
will always be slow and the re-
suits insecure while the rum devil
is pursuing him unchecked and
the glare of the saloon falls upon
his path. While laboring to hold
him up, his enemy and the COM
mon enemy of humanity must be
knocked down. Knock ed down by
the bludgeon of law. Here is party
work. What party shall do it?
Republican and Democratic
parties have both given the club
over into the liquor mems hands
and they stand covering and beg
cling, as the giant of evil brandish.
es it over their heads. They have
become the plant tools of the liq-
uor bosses and there are not five
States in the American Union
where either one of these old par
ties can shake off this venomous
beast into the fire, as Paul of old,
and live. Under such circum.
stances no statutes necessary to de-
stroy or bind the evil can find their
way into the code, or if already
there, they are dead letters. The
enactment and enforcement of laws
against naughty enemy must be
in the hands of a dominant party,
and it must be, at the same time
dominant over the enemy to be
bound. AS we have stated before,
herein lies the necessity for new
division of forces. Neither of the
old parties can fight the old enc
my and this new one at the same
time. And the non partisan tore
es cannot get in their blows till
they organize to do what the exist
ing parties cannot do. Then it
becomes party work. This is the
great work of the age. The start
has been made in the only way
that can, in the nature of the case,
be successful, and the duty OF all
persons who love the triumph OF
Right and the suppression Of
Wrong is to join the forces that are
gathering against the rule of Rum,
and bind the strong man. l care
nothing for name, but the princi-
pie of incorporating warfare
with this evil must be the princi-
pie around which sentiment and
men shall rally, and the party
bound together by this principle is
the coming deliverer to free the
land of this curse. May God speed
the day of glorious triumph.
D. M. SLEETH.
Cairo. w, Va.